1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of high speed data transmission. More particularly, embodiments of the invention relate to systems and methods for serializing and deserializing electrical and/or optical signals in numerous and varied environments to achieve high speed data transmission.
2. The Relevant Technology
Computing and networking technology have transformed our world. As the amount of information communicated over networks has increased, high speed transmission becomes ever more critical. Many high speed data transmission networks rely on optical transceivers and similar optoelectronic devices for facilitating transmission and reception of digital data. Optical networks are thus found in a wide variety of high speed applications ranging from modest Local Area Networks (LANs) to the backbone of the Internet.
Many optoelectronic device architectures use a higher signaling rate and lower signal count to send optical signals over an optical fiber than to receive electrical signals from a line card on which the devices are used. This requires the devices to convert from the higher optical data rate to the lower electrical data rate, and vice versa. The integrated circuit (“IC”) component that performs this function is called a serializer/deserializer, also commonly referred to as a SerDes.
The serializer portion of the SerDes receives two or more parallel data signals from a line card at a first signal rate and provides as output one or more serial data signals at a second signal rate. The number of output serial data signals is usually less than the number of input parallel data signals, although the same amount of data is conveyed by the output serial data signals. Consequently, the signal rate of one of the parallel data signals is less than the signal rate of one of the serial data signals.
The deserializer portion of the SerDes performs a function that is the reverse of the function performed by the serializer. The deserializer receives one or more serial data signals at the second signal rate and provides two or more parallel data signals to the line card at the first signal rate.
Typically, a different SerDes is required for different optoelectronic device architectures since the functions performed by the SerDes depend on the device architecture. For instance, a 40 G transponder architecture may implement the SFI5.1 protocol to convert between sixteen parallel data signals at a 2.5 gigabit per second (“G”) data rate per signal and one 40 G serial signal. In contrast, a 10 GE transponder architecture may implement the XAUI protocol to convert between four parallel 2.5 G data signals and one 10 G serial signal. Accordingly, a need exists in the art for a multi-mode SerDes which supports operation in different architectures and at increased transmission speeds.